TechZone360

Short Circuits: Stalking, Star Trek and TweetPee

“Bitter, Table for One?” Now that smartphone technology is seemingly everywhere, a big trend among the young (and some not-so-young) folks is taking “selfies,” or self-portraits, alone or with friends, and then posting said selfies to various social media, presumably to garner attention for themselves. (Hey, stop your whining. We RAISED this generation or narcissists.) But one woman in Michigan took the idea one step too far, by creating a fake Facebook account, and then stalking herself. Cheryl Nelson reportedly filed some EIGHT police complaints about the stalking from the Facebook page, which she’d allegedly created in her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend’s name. (Wait; did you just hear a cuckoo clock?) Investigating police finally figured out that she was the one who was the actual stalker. Check out the video below if you don’t believe me. Nelson’s been charged with felony filing of a false police report. And it sounds like her ex got out just in time.

The Logic Escapes Us

There are certain institutions in this world you just don’t mess around with: Santa Claus, Sunday brunch, and the ORIGINAL Star Trek are three that immediately come to mind. So it was a tad disconcerting to see the latter pop up on TV recently, featuring Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock alongside the new, younger Spock played by Zachary Quinto, in a spot touting all the whiz-bang tech features of the new Audi A7. Still, the ad people got the tone and feel right, showing the young Mr. Quinto taking advantage of all the Audi’s technology while taking subtle jabs at Nimoy’s Mercedes Benz’ lack thereof. With the new Star Trek film coming shortly, the timing and tie-ins are perfect. And that new Audi looks pretty sweet. Nimoy? Not so much. Hasn’t the guy ever heard of moisturizer?

There’s an App for THAT? Oh, ew…

Because it’s such a moving target, no one really knows how many apps are available for download today. But you can be sure that unusual apps will always garner media attention. And so it is with “TweetPee,” a new app from the makers of Huggies disposable diapers, which will alert parents when their kid’s bottom is soggy. It’s being beta tested in Brazil right now by four families with pre-toilet-trained kids, and is expected to expand to 10 families by July. Describing the new product, an online story said, “An owl-shaped plastic humidity sensor activates the app, which then tweets parents that it's time to change the diaper. The company said the app would help parents track the volume of diapers they use, and know when it's time to reorder; from Huggies, of course.” We’re stunned by the sheer laziness of it all, but one mom summed it up even better: "I'm all about saving time and things that will help me save time," said Meredith Carroll, 40, who blogs for Babble. "But if I can't go to my diaper supply, realize I'm low and go to my computer to place an order, I have bigger problems." True dat.